News

Mix of youth and experience for ORICA-AIS at Gelderland

Fri 17 Apr 2015

The experience of road captain Loes Gunnewijk and Swedish champion Emma Johansson will join forces with the team’s future in Macey Stewart and Alexandra Manly at the Ronde van Gelderland in Holland this Sunday.

Stewart will make her European debut for ORICA-AIS, whilst Manly will make her second start for the team following her debut last week.

“Alex obviously rode the Energiewacht Tour last week which was a huge shock to her system so I think this will be a really good race for her and Macey to settle into,” sport director Gene Bates said.

“It’s a race we have done well at in the past and with the team we have going there, we think they will enjoy it and hopefully the team comes out with another good result.”

Teammate and track world champion Melissa Hoskins sprinted to a podium last year, the team’s best result in three starts at the race. Her third place capped off what was an overall strong performance by the outfit that saw four representatives make a select group of 20 at the front of proceedings.

“I think we will go into this year with a similar style of racing,” Bates said of the team’s goals. “The girls like to be aggressive and it suits them.”

“We are not going to put the whole team on the front to hope for a sprint, but if it does come down to a small bunch finish then I think we have some good riders for that style of racing.

“I’m envisioning a fairly aggressive day of racing with a number of breakaways. And if a breakaway can get away to the finish with a number of our girls in it then we will be really pleased.”